KDE 4.1 print dialog print properties advanced options tab is broken

[Sergio Callegari]

When a print action is invoked on a KDE 4 application in kubuntu 8.10 the kde 4 print dialog appears.

By pressing the "properties" button on the right of the printer selection you enter a new dialog for setting the printer options.
This has two tabs:

1) a "Page" tab where you set the paper size and other completely useless and confusing options like margins (this depends on the printer hardware, it should come from the printer ppd, not from user input!)

2) and "Advanced" tab, where you set the printer options (e.g. resolution, dry time for inkjets, color quality, ecc.)

The advanced tab is broken:

1) In many cases it appears as blank - no options to pick at all. On my system this is always the case when I try to print from okular. Interestingly, if I try to print from konqueror the advanced tab _has_ the options, which is very weird since the print dialog should be the same for all apps.

2) In cases where it does not appear as blank, it is anyway wrong: for instance some options are repeated like "Media size" that systematically appears twice.

(As an aside, I would also like to notice that the print dialog is as a whole much much worse in usability than the kde 3 print dialog was... common options like the activation of duplex are not easily accessible and per user/per printer defaults cannot be saved)

[Sergio Callegari (callegar)]

Weird,

I am now noticing that I get this but in kubuntu intrepid, but I do not if I install okular in hardy.

[Guillaume (guillaume-zin)]

Hello,

Exactly the same here (nothing in okular, weird in konqueror) with KDE4, Intrepid 64 bits and french packages.

Regards.

Guillaume

[Sergio Callegari (callegar)]

Update with kde 4.2.

Options now seem to appear with all kde4 applications.
However, with my printer (HP inkjet on hplip and cups), some the first option (media size) gets always repeated twice.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Hi,
In KDE4, KDE uses the Qt printing framework for handling its printing. (Since nobody stepped up to port kdeprint to KDE4)
We were wondering if this was still an issue for you with Qt 4.5 in Kuubntu 9.04.

[Sergio Callegari (callegar)]

As already said options now always appear. With some printers I get the media size option repeated twice (notably an HP inkjet), I think it still happens, I'll double check as soon as I have that printer at hand.

The biggest problem however remains in the huge regression in functionality in the print system from the 3.5 series. The QT printing framework is very poor. That useless "margins" thing taking half of the print dialogue as if it were the most important thing and that only confuses users is driving me crazy. What I find really very bad is that all the options to help users saving paper are gone. No n-up printing, no odd-even page selection that is necessary to do "manual duplex" on non duplex printers.

Kde4 is quite nice, it is eventually getting stable, but all the effort seems to go in the effects+translucency+animation thing and offices end up using twice the amount of resources (this time paper) because the fundamentals (this time the print system) do not look to be fashionable these days.

Coming back to the point, restoring proper functionality in the print system was in the roadmap for kde4.3, but I believe that it has been cancelled. At least, to the best of my knowledge, there is no trace of it in the betas. Looks like we will have to wait for the QT camp to come up with something.

The good news it that there is now a repository with kde 3.5.10 for jaunty, so one can take kdeprint from there.
I would really wormly recommend kubuntu to do that by default in 9.10, because having to add the repo manually and dealing with the dependencies of the kde 3.5.10 print system can be hard for non-expert users.
What I see that most users do when they need to duplex on non duplex printers is now to print to PDF and then to use acrobat reader do do the real printing since acrobat reader has the odd-even page selection thing.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

The feature regressions are unfortunate, but there's not much that can be done. As long as your bug is fixed I will be closing this bug.

[Sergio Callegari (callegar)]

Please be so kind to reopen. Apart from the "general" considerations about the status of printing by which I have unfortunately flooded you all (and I apologize), the original bug regarding the options appearing multiple times is still there with an HP5740. I can also confirm that it does not come out with all printers.

In the attached picture, note the media size entry appearing twice and the fact that you can actually select contrasting sizes. Looking at the cups page at localhost:631 the same options appear, but with media size obviously appearing only once.